Unit 2 E2: Structure of a muscle fibre (BTEC Sport & Exercise Science)

This fully-resourced lesson looks at the detailed structure of a muscle fibre, and focuses on the proteins, bands and zones that are found in the myofibril. The engaging PowerPoint and acccompanying resource have been designed to cover the third part of point E2 in UNIT 2 of the Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in Sport and Exercise Science specification.

The lesson begins with an imaginary question from the quiz show POINTLESS, where students have to recognise a range of fields of study. This will reveal myology as the study of muscles so that key terms like myofibril and myosin can be introduced. Moving forwards, students will be shown the striated appearance of this muscle so they can recognise that some areas appear dark where both myofilaments are found and others as light as they only contain actin or myosin. A quiz competition is used to introduce the A band, I band and H zone and students then have to use the information given to label a diagram of the myofibril. The final task challenges the students to use their knowledge of the sliding filament theory to recognise which of these bands or zones narrow or stay the same length when muscle is contracted.